Cocoa delights marketing plan

Marketing objectives should be presented to the CEO in written format, and respond to each of the following statements:
1. Compatibility: How is the objective compatible with the organisation’s strategic direction and purpose?

To achieve this, we have 5 priorities:
Building a customer and store-led culture and team
Generating sustainable sales momentum in Food
Evolving our Drinks business to provide even more value and convenience to customers
Empowering our portfolio businesses to pursue strategies to deliver shareholder value
Becoming a lean retailer through end-to-end process and systems excellence

It all starts with building a great retail team that listens to customers, team members and suppliers. Through our Voice of the Customer programme across our brands, our store teams and Support Office team receive daily feedback from our customers. This means our team can focus every day on continuing to improve our offer and shopping experience for our customers. Our Australian Food team has rallied behind our purpose ‘we bring a little good to everyone every day and is working towards a clear strategy to put our customers first:

Objective 1: brand an awareness Compatibility to include, Cocoa delights marketing plan for 2010 the benchmark for cocoa delights You note the targets in the cocoa delights marketing plan for 2010 focus on building brand awareness amongst customers. The CEO explains that this is a benchmark that cocoa delights would like to achieve in all markets in which it operates. This is in keeping with the chair of the board’s statement, ‘by 2015, I see cocoa delights with a significant presence in retail chocolate in every Australian capital city ‘Securing the key objectives of market penetration and share he COE states that, in Melbourne, it was brand awareness that helped to secure the key objectives of market penetration and share, and that this should continue to be the goal.

Mission: Cocoa delights will be the leading chocolate retailer, nationally. Vision Cocoa delights dare to create the unconventional. Vision: Within the next Five years, cocoa delights will become a national retail brand. As the CEO stated: “Within the next 5 years, cocoa delights will become a national retail brand that satisfies our customers with a range of unique, high quality dark chocolate, as well as providing exceptional customer service from our highly skilled and dedicated staff”.

Consistency to include:

The following statements by the chair of the board Cocoa delights has always been daring and unconventional. Creativity and innovation have always been our strength and the cornerstone of our success. For our stakeholders, we have always been about stewardship and adhering to professional and moral standards of conduct in all that we do. For employees, we are committed to encouraging self-directed teams; we cultivate leadership and maintain high levels of safety.

Externally, we are committed to sustainable environmental prefaces and offering meaningful value to our customers. By 2016, I see cocoa delights as being a significant retail presence in every Australian capital city, staring with 22 stores in the greater Melbourne area and growing to 100 stores Australia wide. Our market strength is our ability to source the ´nest cocoa beans at prices that customers believe represent value for them but also provide the organisation with the required margins

2. Consistent: How is the objective consistent with the current and future needs of the business?
Haigh’s Chocolates overview: Mid-sized operations of only a few stores per city. Haigh’s sell chocolates at mid ranged prices. No imported goods. Extensive advertising. Medium to high quality product. Currently has stores in Melbourne, Sydney & Adelaide. Strong in the replacement segment rather than new and refurbished dwellings.
view themselves as operating in different market segments within the same industry.

Haigh’s already understands the markets in the three established capital cities, and are looking to open a few stores soon in Brisbane. They have the necessary contacts for essential services and council/ state government compliance issues.
There may be a conflict of interest between what is good for Haigh’s and what is good for Cocoa Delights.
The rollout to 100 stores is expected to take 5–7 years.
Advertising would be cheaper, given that they already access media via extensive advertising for Haigh’s Chocolates.
Joint brand advertising could be conducted because the market segments are complimentary rather than competitive.
Customers could enjoy greater access to all of the product groups, including the cheaper range of chocolate.

Association with a mass producer could impact negatively on Cocoa Delights’ premier reputation for quality chocolate.
Haigh’s Chocolates will help establish Cocoa Delights’ brand awareness with access to low-cost combined media buys in other capital cities.
Haigh’s Chocolates will share advertising space on billboard, advertising and PR articles.
Concerns over Haigh’s Chocolate’s past advertising practices.
Joint industry-wide promotions will allow Cocoa Delights to establish early traction in its goals for market share in other capital cities.

3. Equipped: How is the objective compatible with organisational projections for capability, resources and finances?
1. A double-digit growth rate for each future year.
2. Continue to increase our gross profit margins.
3. Continue to decrease the variable costs associated with chocolate production.

The CEO states that, in Melbourne, it was brand awareness that helped to secure the key objectives of market penetration and share, and that this should continue to be the goal. Brand awareness will be achieved by the joint venture TV advertising campaign, costing the company $1.1 million in each new market. This money has been set aside in the budget, as has provisions for an increase in staff for the marketing department to help manage the campaign. Priorities for the plan are to ensure that the branding exercise complies with the Competition and Consumer Act 20101, and that it is not associated with activities that are not in the community’s best interests. Established markets will allocate 20% of the advertising budget for brand awareness rather than product promotion.

Managing brand awareness is an overall company responsibility. All managers and executives will be charged with the responsibility to display the brand prominently in stores, advertising, packaging, staff uniforms, vehicles and in PR articles. The key to managing this target will be regular feedback from surveys and research conducted by national consultants Holt & Burrows.
You also note that the sales analysis of existing Melbourne stores shows handmade chocolate at 45%, partly handmade at 25%, machine made chocolate at 15%, together with the hot beverages at 15%. The CEO explains that, initially, the hand made chocolate gains early traction with the market, followed by uptake in other categories. For this reason, the CEO suggests that a target of 30% for machine made chocolate would indicate that the new markets were on track to achieve the overall sales target.

Often a new customer’s first purchase is from the Dark Decadence range, and this provides an opportunity to sign them up for a loyalty program. Therefore, the initial advertising budget will feature items from this category, and also be the focus of the front entrance prominent display during the initial period. In terms of market share, the vision of the company is to dominate the markets in which Cocoa Delights operates. The CEO explains that Cocoa Delights has approximately 18 % of the Melbourne gourmet chocolate market, and they expect to replicate and increase this rate in the long-term for every capital city in which they operate. From a position of dominance, the company is able to achieve its sales targets, as well as the gross margins required to succeed.

A full marketing plan will be developed, with resources including access to Holt & Burrows and 5% of turnover allocated to finance the budget to achieve this target. The company will need to ensure that it complies with the competition rules set by the ACCC for the market dominant player. To achieve this share, it is very important that stores achieve their break-even target of $3 million. It is estimated that new markets will need to achieve about 15% market share before break-even sales levels are secured.